Note 6 — Chapter XVII · THE STOIC STRAIN IN CHRISTIANITY.

In the references to the New Testament books in this chapter no attempt is made to apply any precise critical theory of their origin or date. Since we suppose that all Christian doctrine was enunciated orally long before it was committed to writing, the date and circumstances of the written record become for the present purpose of secondary importance. Translations from the New Testament are, as a rule, taken from Dr R. F. Weymouth’s New Testament in Modern Speech (London 1903). This admirable translation has for the present purpose the great negative advantage of keeping in the background the mass of associations which hinder the modern reader from taking the words of the writers in their simple and natural sense; but on the other hand, Dr Weymouth sometimes disguises the technical terms of ancient philosophy so far as to make them unrecognisable. In such cases the Revised Version is quoted, and occasionally the Greek text.